EVGA Bronze 500W review: affordable EVGA power supply

Tested and compared with 45 other 400-550 watt PSUs

By Koen CrijnsFriday 8 November 2013 05:58

Introduction

Graphics card manufacturer EVGA added power supplies to its portfolio some time ago. We primarily know the brand from powerful PSUs such as the SuperNova Classified 1500W we tested earlier this year, and the EVGA SuperNova G2 1300W. EVGA has some more affordable models as well, such as the EVGA Bronze 500W, also known as the EVGA 500B.

The Bronze 500W is a single-rail power supply that can supply up to 40A or 480W on the 12V cables, and for the 5V and 3.3V rails it's 20A and 24A, respectively. It's not a modular power supply, which means all cables permanently attached. These consist of 3x molex, 1x floppy, 6x SATA and 2x 6/8-pin PEG connectors, pretty standard for the 500W segment. They're all sleeved.

The 80Plus Bronze certification implies they should be at least 85% efficiënt at a 50% load.

The PSU has a 12cm fan, likely a sleeve bearing one, and there's a power switch to turn of the power supply. Taking a look at the interior, it appears that it's probably manufactured by HEC/Compucase. It's very similar to the Be Quiet L8 series.

The design of the EVGA Bronze 500W is fairly standard, except that the grill on top of the fan is a little different. A nice little detail is the fact that EVGA put stickers on both sides so you can always read the info regardless of how you place the PSU.

The average price is £43 / €60, which is also about the average for 500W 80Plus Bronze PSUs.